Play it again? Not this time
As films repeat themselves, Michael Caine, Johnny Depp, Meg Ryan and
others try their best to avoid doing likewise.
By Lynn Smith, Times Staff Writer
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-ca-smith19jan19,0,7880186.story

Currently, movie audiences can see Michael Caine as a world-weary
Brit and jealous lover, smoking opium and reporting from Vietnam
in "The Quiet American." Later this year he'll be a gun-toting,
steak-chewing Texan, brother of the equally crusty Robert Duvall, in
the family film "Secondhand Lions."

Caine, whose accent was trashed in one of his earliest Hollywood
roles as a ruthless Southerner in "Hurry Sundown," says the first
day he opened his mouth on the Austin, Texas, set in front of an all-
Texan crew, "I was probably as nervous as I've been in a long time."
He spent two months learning how to stop neatly separating his words
as he normally does and let them lean together in a subtle way.

The role was "a tremendous departure," he says, "the most American
character I've ever played."

In his efforts to try a new role, Caine is swimming upstream.
Hollywood will churn out the largest number in memory of play-it-
safe sequels, prequels and adaptations this year, and audiences will
see many stars in familiar roles -- Bruce Willis goes to war in the
action adventure "Tears of the Sun," Tommy Lee Jones will track an
assassin in the thriller "The Hunted." Still, some actors and
directors jump at the chance to do something completely different.

If it's hard to imagine the cockney Caine in a cowboy hat, picture
bubbly Meg Ryan as a flamboyant boxing manager in "Against the
Ropes." Or mega-star emeritus Jack Nicholson stealing Adam Sandler's
girlfriend in "Anger Management." Or Julia Roberts teaching art
history at Wellesley in "Mona Lisa Smile."

Even Johnny Depp, who once told an interviewer "I'm not Blockbuster
Boy," is switching gears: You'll see him this summer as a pirate in
producer Jerry Bruckheimer's popcorn movie "Pirates of the
Caribbean," based on the Disneyland ride.

There's nothing surprising about actors wanting to stretch, says
Leonard Maltin, film critic for television's "Hot Ticket." One
school of thought is "give the public what it wants," but another
is "don't paint yourself into a corner."

"I don't think there's an actor with a brain who doesn't want to try
different things and doesn't want to avoid being typecast or
pigeonholed," Maltin says.

What's different now, suggests veteran producer Robert Cort
("Against the Ropes"), is that audiences may be less forgiving of
change than they were decades ago. When actors were under contract
to studios, they could afford to depart now and then from roles
they'd become identified with because they knew the studios would
always be willing to employ them later in their more popular roles.

"Some of it had to do with your confidence, your ability, your
standing and your own belief in your talent," he says. Now high
salaries and box office pressures have made actors more fearful of
switching gears, he says.

What's more, many actors overthink their choices, Cort says, because
they're trying too hard to control their careers. "A lot of people
talk about taking chances. But when presented with the opportunity,
they pull back."

Some don't have the versatility. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example,
realized there was nothing beyond action movies that he could or
wanted to do, Cort says. (And this year he will return to his most
successful franchise with "Terminator 3.") His 180-degree turn is
his quest to be governor, Cort says.

Several directors will also veer off into unfamiliar territory in
2003. Ang Lee, known for his eclectic choices ("Sense and
Sensibility," "The Ice Storm," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"),
will try out computer-generated images in "The Hulk," the comic-book
classic about a scientist whose rage turns him into a giant green
brute.

Producer Avi Arad said Universal's Mary Parent, co-president of
production, suggested Lee as director. For Lee, the special effects
and computer-generated characterization were appealing.

"Usually a director like Lee, an intellectual, reacts to a story he
can tell," Arad says. Once he understood that the Hulk represented
metaphorical anger and rage, Arad says, "he loved the idea."
Audiences should think of it as "an art film with amazing action and
a big budget," he adds.

In other departures, Lawrence Kasdan ("Body Heat," "The Big Chill"
and "Grand Canyon") will be directing the adaptation of Stephen
King's "Dreamcatcher," a camping tale of four friends who encounter
an alternate world. On the other hand, director Tim Burton
("Batman," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Planet of the Apes")
will be trying "Big Fish," an emotional father-son story starring
Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor.

Even for established, popular actors, taking on new kinds of roles
can be risky. Many people questioned the casting of Harrison Ford as
a Russian submarine commander in last year's "K-19: The
Widowmaker." "Then we saw the film, and we were right," Maltin says.

The biggest risk for an actor is doing a bad picture, Maltin
says. "Michael Caine knew that years ago. When some of his films
weren't very good, he worked hard to be good in them."Caine, 69,
says it is precisely because he has been so successful in those
movies that he can afford to cherry-pick quality roles. He grabbed
the part of the old Texan in "Secondhand Lions" for the chance to
work with Duvall, and also with Haley Joel Osment as an
impressionable nephew who comes to live with them. Another lure was
the 10-year-old script, which he calls "lovely." "It has to be one
of the best endings I've ever seen in a movie," he says.The movie's
writer and director, Tim McCanlies, a native Texan, admits he
worried about Caine's accent, which he wanted to be softer than a
twang and thinner than a drawl. "A bad one is like nails on a
blackboard to a Texan. A week out, I was bugging him to hear it,"
McCanlies says. Crew members held their breath as Caine performed an
eight-minute storytelling sequence in one take, McCanlies says.

Other filmmakers' decisions depend on where they are in life. Depp,
whose most recent films were "Blow" and "From Hell," is now the
father of two children, Bruckheimer points out. "Actors like to do
things their kids can see." Depp's role in the ensemble cast is an
honest but roguish pirate who chases the pirate thief who stole his
ship.

When Bruckheimer proposed the idea to Depp last year at Cannes, the
actor was interested. The part isn't really a stretch, Bruckheimer
says. "When you read the character, you never quite know what
direction he's coming from. He tells you the truth, and you think
he's making it up. Johnny has a look, a feel about him. You can see
him being a rogue." The movie may have Disney values, Bruckheimer
says, but it also has supernatural quirkiness.

Sandler, whose fan base began with boys, has also been stretching
into dramatic roles, notably in last year's "Punch-Drunk Love."
Still, the pairing of Sandler with Nicholson is an eyebrow-raiser.
Nicholson normally picks carefully among prestige scripts and
directors. In "Anger Management" he plays an over-the-top anger
management instructor, a snarling menace and romantic rival to
Sandler's innocent nice guy. Sandler plays more of the straight-man
role.

Todd Garner, the film's producer, says he had the part written for
Nicholson because no one else possessed the menace, sexuality and
requisite comic timing. Nicholson and Sandler worked together on
their parts, meeting at Nicholson's house with Garner, screenwriter
David Dorfman and director Peter Segal.

Male actors have an easier time finding roles in which they can flex
their acting skills, says producer Cort. "There are so few bravura
parts for women," he says, "especially in contemporary pieces.
Actresses get to take more chances in period drama ... when they're
playing Queen Elizabeth or something."

Ryan and Roberts have previously tried -- with different degrees of
success -- to change their on-screen personas, forged in romantic
comedy. Roberts won an Oscar in 2000 for the feisty "Erin
Brockovich"; Ryan had less box office success as an alcoholic
in "When a Man Loves a Woman" and a vengeful photographer
in "Addicted to Love."

In "Against the Ropes," Ryan's role as Jackie Kallen, boxing's first
female manager, is a "significant departure but not a 180-degree
shift," Cort says. "It used a lot of her intelligence and sense of
humor. We wanted someone the audience had sympathy with going in so
we could take real chances with the character. Meg did that.

"Meg has a much sexier body than the girl-next-door kind of parts
have allowed her to play," Cort says. The first day on the set, when
Ryan appeared in a provocative short skirt and tight top, the crew
did a double take, he says. "From that moment on, she was known on
the set as Jackie. No one referred to her as Meg."

"Fitzgerald said there are no second acts," Cort says. "That's a
dated concept. There are big second acts today in American life.
This is a bit of a second act for Meg."